If you must, please explain why a descriptive link is a big problem in lieu of posting the graphic. Because links-only sucks. We can post graphics to threads because that is the format of this political forum and it is one of the things that makes it enjoyable. I've had several posts commending the graphics and asking that they continue. I'm not trying to hurt anyone, I'm trying to be helpful. There's no reason why reasonably-sized graphics can't be posted to a Free Republic thread.
I will tell you why. Those of us who live on the coast, and actually lose sleep and property due to these storms use these hurricane threads to share information. As these deadly storms near landfall, the traffic on these hurricane threads increase dramatically (over 12,000 hits in a few hours). The graphics really show down the threads.
Links are a perfectly viable alternative.